Armed To The Teeth
by Readergirl37
Summary: Elena trades Klaus's body to Elijah for the promise of a favor. She collects on it seven years later, when she needs help killing a vampire. He wonders if she's watched too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Elijah/Elena
1. One Changed Voice

The next time he hears from her, after she negotiates with him for his brother's body, is seven years later.

She had negotiated that if she ever called, he had to help. She had never specified if it was one call or any call, but he had waited. She hadn't called until now.

* * *

He had kept track of her for a while, he knew she graduated as a human, and moved out of Mystic Falls. After that, she had disappeared.

* * *

He didn't bother to keep tabs on her, if she wanted to be found by him, she'd call. She had a right to privacy and anonymity.

* * *

He's more than a little surprised on the rainy Tuesday morning her name graces his phone's screen. He answers her call immediately. He sets his cup of tea on his coffee table, and waits a few moments.

"Elijah." She says, and he notes how her voice has a changed. It's subtle, a little deeper. He wonders if anything else has changed.

"Elena." He sounds the same, she notes. She wonders if he'll help her with her rather petty problem. She's sure he could send someone to help her, if he felt so inclined. He's got other things to do, no doubt.

"I need your help." She says, and he finds himself asking what she needs.

* * *

She needs him to kill a vampire that's been giving her grief. She explains that she kills vampires that she knows have been doing the killing sprees in her city, but she's not strong enough for this one. He's too old, and once she takes him down, she can take down the others. She just needs a little help. He's more than qualified, being the second oldest Original on the planet. She wonders if he knows his birthday.

* * *

He asks for an address, and she gives one. He tells her that he'll see her in a few hours. He wonders if she started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when she made the transition from loving vampires to killing them.


	2. Ditch the Suit

He knocks, and she opens her door. She looks different, a few scars on the skin she's showing. She's more muscular than the negotiating teenager he had known a handful of years ago.

She invites him in without delay, she wants the door shut as quickly as possible.

"Elena." He greets, wondering if she remembers.

"Elijah." She counters, her voice quiet.

"It's a huge risk just having you in the city, he has spies crawling all over but I need your help." She admits, and he sees a cozy apartment. If human police were to ever search here, she'd be screwed. He sees crossbows and stakes on the wall, and a collection of knives on her coffee table, he notes the guns with wooden bullets on her bookcases. She asks if he wants tea and he gives a polite yes. He can smell it brewing in the kitchen. Evidently her tastes have changed for the better. He doesn't ask about the Salvatores, or the lack of friendly vampires in her life. He does raise an eyebrow at the covered windows as she returns with a cup of coffee.

"None of the vampires here are daywalkers. Thank God." She sighs, and she gestures for him to sit. She takes the couch, he takes the armchair.

"What do you do nowadays?" He asks.

"I teach self defense for money and I ghost write on the side." She tells him, adjusting the laces of one of her boots. They're steel toed. He wonders if those boots are what she wears when she goes out into the night to fight. Another part wonders if she'd let him teach her a few techniques. He has centuries of fighting skills he wouldn't mind sharing with her, especially when she's killing vampires regularly. He can't help the odd feeling he has for her, he wants her to be safe. The girl who had been his ally when he had wanted to kill his brother, all grown up.

She fills him in on what she's been doing, he can't tell if he's impressed or disappointed that she's been doing this by herself. She tells him of her nightly patrols, and work. He's also interested in her writing, but he'll ask her about that later.

Thunder cracks outside and she swears. If it's raining, vampires can be out. He asks to accompany her on her nightly route, and she agrees but tells him he needs to wear something other than a suit. She wants to laugh at the look he gives.

"You're known as the Original who wears a suit. Or the one with the best hair, depending on who you ask." She says, and he can sense the teasing in her words. It's not unwelcome, they used to be closer, back when they were both in Mystic Falls.

"Which one am I to you?" He asks. He hasn't agreed to forgo his suit yet.

"I'll tell you when I know." She answers, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. She needs to go write, and the has an hour before sunset makes the city even more unsafe.

"I will return in something other than a suit." He promises.


	3. War Paint and Staking

He knocks, and she answers the door looking completely different than when he had seen her, just an hour ago.

She's wearing makeup, war paint, she'll correct him later. It's warpaint. She goes to do battle every night. She's wearing the steel toed boots and jeans that don't restrict her movement. Dark colors and she's armed to the teeth. He asks if she has any of those vervain bombs her former history teacher was so fond of making. She laughs, remembering the first time he had been acquainted with one. She nods and hands him one.

Things have changed. For one, Elijah isn't wearing a suit, and he looks at her differently. It's still a dark coat, the collar is high. She remembers that she's rarely seen more than his neck and hands exposed. She'd get too hot wearing that much.

* * *

"Both." She answers as they walk out of her apartment. He almost wants to call her a walking weapon, she has two knives in each boot and a stake in each sleeve- not to mention all of the things he had seen her fit in her tiny purse. He nods in approval. He does like his hair. She won't admit it if he asks, but she likes his hair too. It's a little different than a few years ago, he looks younger. She wants to laugh at the thought. He's still over a thousand years old.

* * *

He looks better than when she had first met him. He looks happy. Or at least, happier. She supposes making peace with his brother did that. Having all of his siblings alive and well in their own domains around the globe must be nice for him, she thinks as she walks. She allows herself to be on a slightly lower guard, Elijah has better senses than she does.

* * *

She stakes a vampire before he can say anything, and she looks oddly satisfied, he notes, as the younger vampire's skin grays. The body slides down the brick wall of the alley. She doesn't bother doing anything other than removing the stake. She explains when he arches an eyebrow.

"The sunlight will hit there first. He'll be ash in the morning." She says and he nods. He asks if she'd consider letting him train her with different fighting styles, or let him read what she writes. She agrees to both, she never turns down fighting knowledge and Elijah must have quite a bit of it. It'll be handy when she's cleaning up the mess that removing the head vampire will make. She tells him she'll give him some of her writing after they kill the vampire she used the favor for.

* * *

They walk back to her apartment at sunrise, she had to kill one vampire who had recognized Elijah, the Original had assured her he had no attachment. He had walked into her apartment, tired. She offered her guest bedroom and he had taken her up on that deal. Her apartment was safer than his hotel room, after all.


	4. Plans at Breakfast

He wakes up to the smell of pancakes and protein shakes. Elena looks better, more human when he sees her in the kitchen. She offers human breakfast, she doesn't have blood in her fridge. He does smell blood though, and he finds little vials in her fridge. Carefully labeled as Caroline's. He waits for an explanation. She gives one.

"Caroline gives me her blood every week for healing properties." She admits. She's rough on her body, rougher than she should be, really. Vampire blood helps take the deep ache out of her muscles, and it's saved her life more than a few times.

He wonders if she'd ever consider becoming a vampire. The thought of having to watch her age and die sours his mood slightly. He can't think on that until he's alone, so he tucks it away.

* * *

He asks when she wants him to take the vampire leader out. She replies that he can do so whenever he wants, although preferably sometime this century. That earns a chuckle.

* * *

They work out a schedule for the next week. He wants to train her before he leaves, and so they work around her schedule. She wonders what it'd be like to be as old as he is, to have unlimited money and no set schedule.

She shoves the thought out of her head.


	5. Blood and Thoughts

She moves quickly for a human, but it disturbs him how many moments in their training that he _knows_ if he just did _this_ or _that_ , she'd be dead. He wonders why it bothers him so much. It shouldn't, not really.

* * *

He takes the leader's heart out in front of her, and he sees something he can't name in her eyes. They take out all of the lackeys in the building, and she admires how seamlessly they work together. They're both covered in vampire blood, and she tells him that she appreciates his help, and that he should come say goodbye this time. Not just a letter, and a quick return to make a deal.

He lets out a laugh, a real, deep laugh and gives her his word that he will.

* * *

It begins to rain as he begins to walk away and she laughs as she gets soaked. She catches a smile on his face as he starts to get absolutely drenched too.


	6. Doesn't sit Right

She's in her pajamas when he knocks on her door again.

He's leaving. Of course. She doesn't know why the thought doesn't sit quite right with her.

* * *

"You're leaving." She says, and he shakes his head.

"I have found this city to be quite a nice place, lovely Elena. I am staying." He says. They both pretend to ignore her heart jump as he says that.

"I know a local who loves giving tours of the city." She says, hoping he'll understand she means herself.

"What does this person want in return?" He inquires.

"Breakfast." She answers immediately, as her stomach begins to growl. He grins.

"Well then, lovely Elena, I believe we might have a deal."


	7. Nothing To Offer But Sparring

She's got her arm pressed against his throat, of all things when he figures it out. He's in love with her. Like deep love he can't see himself distancing himself from. It grew like a tumor, at first he had thought it benign.

* * *

He had been a fool.

* * *

Leaving would hurt her, he's not sure when the tumor took up so much space in his heart and brain. Both scream at the thought of leaving the woman grinning at him. He can't. She asks if her grip is really that good, surely he could escape if he had wanted to.

* * *

But he doesn't, and she presses into him, an open taunt. It'd be easy to do a number of things, but he just reverses their positions. His arm is near her collarbone instead.

* * *

He seems distracted, she notices, so she slips out of his grasp, it's not as hard as usual. He's not sparring with her verbally too, like he usually does. She wonders what's wrong, she's on the opposite side of the small room, and he seems to have a delayed reaction time. She wonders if she could help. She tries to get the thought to go away.

She's human. She has nothing to offer him.


	8. Something, But Not That

She's not going to admit that she wants him to stay, in her city. She's almost used to not seeing him in a suit everyday. It doesn't really mean anything, though, she knows as she answers the door to let him in.

* * *

They mean _something._ She's just not sure what their relationship means to him. Sure he's her best friend that lives close, and they've gotten take out and watched movies every Friday since his decision to stay. But, Elena stops herself _again-_ it doesn't mean _that._

Just because they've had each other's blood, she had found him near drained by a few witches-offering her blood had been their only option. She would have made it again, even if it hadn't been. He had given his to her when Caroline's wasn't healing her quickly enough. She's sure it's one of the only times she had seen genuine fear in his eyes.

* * *

Just because they mean _something_ doesn't mean they mean _that._


	9. Like A Flower

He doesn't reach her in time. Milliseconds too late. Her eyes are already the glassy eyes of someone who no longer can see. Her body, she looks so much younger. He can't pretend that she's sleeping. He kills everyone who had anything to do with it.

* * *

There are dozens of vampires in the building.

* * *

He is careful to clean the blood from his hands, he has to take her home. He doesn't want worthless blood on someone so valuable. He carefully carries her. He knows, he knows she had blood that morning. He just hopes it's enough.

* * *

One bullet. Enough to extinguish light from her eyes. The blood had blossomed like a flower in the spring, too quickly for human eyes to see. The blood has soaked through, his shirt is wet with it. He hasn't prayed in centuries, but he prays to any and all gods that still listen to his prayers for her to turn.

His mood is worsened when he realizes she might have wanted a human death.

* * *

Drinking vampire blood, surely she had thought of the possible consequences.

* * *

He doesn't breathe until she does.


	10. Tense Waiting and Decision Making

Her hands go to her stomach, the bullet that hit her is on her coffee table, wrapped in his handkerchief and he tells her so. Her lip quivers when she realizes what happened, she doesn't feel right. And he wouldn't be looking at her like that if it had all gone right, either. She realizes she died this time, and there's no way to fix it. She has to turn or die.

* * *

She wordlessly puts her face in his shoulder. He waits, tensely.

* * *

He wants to distance himself in case she doesn't want immortality, but he can't. Can't bring himself to do it, can't even move.

* * *

He waits for the woman he loves to make a decision.


	11. Fire and Blood

She pulls her head away, and she finds familiar eyes searching hers. She's not sure she's ever seen Elijah look this vulnerable before. Hope sparks in her chest, if she lets it live, flames will devour her bones and the rest of her.

* * *

She asks if he has any blood bags in his fridge.

* * *

Relief hits him like a train, she can feel him relax against her. She's never minded being warm.


	12. Faster

He trains her. Only this time, it's how to be a functioning, undead member of society.

* * *

Emotions are hard, everything is so intense to her now.

* * *

The words slip out before she means to take a sip of wine. He had wanted her to try it, brought it over. It had paired well with dinner. He freezes.

* * *

She runs, instinctually.

* * *

She always forgets he's faster than she is. He's always been faster.

* * *

She hasn't seen his eyes like this since she had woken up after being shot.

"Do you mean it?" He asks, he's trapped her against her own front door.

She can't speak.

* * *

She nods instead.

* * *

He kisses her more intensely than she knew was possible, and she finally feels like her emotions are okay. Just for a moment.

* * *

Or a few hours.

* * *

Elijah has always been able to fix little problems with ease.

* * *

He whispers his love against her lips, and she just kisses him.

* * *

There's no need to have so much gear anymore.

* * *

She sleeps next to a walking weapon. She doesn't mind getting the knives out of her boots and stakes out of her sleeves. She's still armed to the teeth.

* * *

Finis


End file.
